Jackson has the @JsonIgnoreProperties annotation at field level which is awesome, but sometime it can be big.
@JsonIgnoreProperties({ "name", "phone", ... "20th item"})
private User user;
I'm looking for something like:
@JsonIgnoreOtherProperties("email")
private User user;
So this would ignore all fields but email.
Is there something like @JsonIgnoreOtherProperties ?
I don't think that exists but there are several ways of achieving what you want (other than your existing solution):
1) Using @JsonView (http://wiki.fasterxml.com/JacksonJsonViews). See What is the JSON View class in Jackson and how does it work? for an example.
2) Creating a different User view which contains a minimal set of fields, perhaps UserMinimal. It might inherit from a common interface as your other User view to show they really represent the same entity.
3) Customizing the object mapper and using a filter. See How do I exclude fields with Jackson not using annotations? for an example.
Personally, I prefer the first solution if you have a simple use case and the second if you have a more complex one. I dislike the third option as I think customizing object mappers leads down an error prone path in my experience.
Your annotation idea sounds interesting though. I would consider putting it as a feature request (I think it would go https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-annotations/issues).
